


Noktomezo

by Bitterblue



Series: Daemons and Demons [1]
Category: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-04
Updated: 2016-12-04
Packaged: 2018-09-06 08:08:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8741833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bitterblue/pseuds/Bitterblue
Summary: The HDM au you didn't know you wanted. Everything is the same except there are daemons and s2 never happened.





	

The first time it happens is an accident. **  
**

They're in the middle of trying to negotiate with a hostile alien, the sort of "negotiation" that has, historically for Alex Danvers, gone completely sideways in moments. The detective from NCPD with dimples for days is there by her side, which is convenient given Kara has yet to arrive—

And then Supergirl is there, with Noktomezo behind on her tail wind, an irritated puff of black against the dark sky. He swoops in to land on Alex's shoulder, the tip of his wing clipping the detective's cheek briefly, and she and Alex both pause at the feeling before the alien decides to hurl a parked car in their direction and they mutually decide, quite wisely, not to spend valuable time thinking about this particular taboo in the face of imminent crushing. Darting out of the trajectory, Alex takes her hand and _pulls_.

 

* * *

 

The second time is also an accident. Probably.

The detective has a name, _Maggie Sawyer_ , and this time at the crime scene the bodies are already dead and Alex gets a good look at her daemon. He's a cat, and not the domesticated kind—there is something small and _wild_ to him, which probably means there's something wild to Detective Sawyer. For a brief moment, Alex nearly loses her train of thought in a new and downright alarming way. Noktomezo nips at her ear in reproach.

They're walking slowly through the taped-off area, Detective Sawyer running through a list of potential suspects aloud. It's _work_ and it has nothing to do with the curious questions that Alex suddenly finds herself preoccupied with. Nonsense questions.

Noktomezo grips her shoulder tighter as the cat-daemon saunters their way, flicking the tip of his tail in displeasure. They flinch together when it brushes her hand.

* * *

Once is a mistake. Twice is a coincidence. Three times becomes a pattern.

"He's an oncilla," Maggie is saying, with a touch of pride in her voice. They're in a bar, though it's a little unlike any she's been in before, crowded with aliens in various states of passing—or not—for human. The beer is good, though, and the company is better. After half a dozen shared cases, Alex has found that she quite enjoys her time with Maggie Sawyer, World's Most Stubborn Cop. "Yours? Besides a black bird?"

Noktomezo puffs himself up self-righteously on the table, small and gleamingly black in the dim lighting of the bar. "Nok's a chough."

"Short for anything?"

"Noktomezo. It means midnight in Esperanto. My parents…" Alex sighs and puts her head in her hand, "were enormous nerds."

"Yeah? I like nerds."

Under the table, Alex feels Maggie's daemon curl his tail around her ankle.

 

* * *

 

After that she almost starts to expect it.

Somewhere along the line, Alex gets J'onn to grant Maggie at least some limited access to the DEO, because she's become invaluable to the team. (And if she's maybe a little extra invaluable to Alex, well, that's none of their business and J'onn can keep his telepathy to himself.)

Maggie (and Kogi, always at her heel and looking half-ready to fight) is there one morning as Alex walks into work, a case file in hand and a welcoming smile—smirk?—as she offers it to Alex. "It's a good one," she says, Alex and Nok stepping close to her; between the almost-touch of Maggie's shoulder against her arm and the irritated cat tapping of her daemon's tail against her leg, Alex has to try very hard to concentrate.

She wonders if anyone's ever told Maggie it's _rude_ to touch someone with her daemon.

 

* * *

 

The bar is crowded. Maggie had asked her to come and Alex had _nearly_ jumped out of her own skin (and she'll have marks on her shoulder from where Nok's claws had dug into it), worried all of the jumbled thoughts she's had for the past month had been written plain across her face. Alex has never felt the way she does around Maggie, something between flustered and warm.

Maggie comes back from the bar with beers for them both, and as she sits across from Alex at the small table, their knees pressed together, Kogi drapes himself across Maggie's feet—and the toes of Alex's boots.

"Didn't anyone ever _tell_ you that it's kind of...you know..." Alex sighs, trying to find the right words as a staticky, warm feeling spreads up from her feet, " _inappropriate_ to touch someone else's daemon?"

Maggie laughs, warm and bright. None of them move.

 

* * *

 

The fight has lasted longer than she'd hoped; the bullets they brought have proved useless against the meta-human intent on destroying all aliens in National City. Again. (Alex wouldn't mind if they threw a little variety into the Bad Guy Playbook.) She's called in Kara for backup, and sent Nok to talk her through the situation on the way over so she can concentrate on not being frozen by the ice-wielding villain.

There's a flutter of red in the corner of her eye. Supergirl swoops down, Noktomezo behind her, and there is a breath of a moment where Alex sees what will happen and shouts. Their opponent shouts, too, icy breath frosting everything in her path, which Supergirl dodges. Nok does not, and he's falling and falling and Alex is suddenly so, so cold. The last thing she knows before she crumples to the ground is warm hands catching Nok.

 

* * *

 

She wakes up in the DEO recovery bay. She blinks, sitting up only enough to look around the room. Maggie is there, sitting in a chair across from the foot of her bed, looking exhausted and sporting a few butterfly sutures across the edge of one cheekbone, asleep in an uncomfortable-looking position. Nok is settled in the dark waves of her hair, black on nearly-black. The sight of her daemon curled up on this woman's shoulder wrenches something in Alex's chest, and whatever sound she must make has Kogi blinking up at her from his spot by Maggie's feet.

Alex has no idea what it is she wants in this moment, and the cat-daemon studies her face, Maggie still asleep. Apparently satisfied with whatever he has found in her, Kogi stands, stretches, and then hops onto the recovery bed next to Alex, slinging himself down to curl against her side.

 

* * *

 

They don't talk about it—don't see each other for over a week. Maggie is still a cop and she has cop things to do, and Alex has the rest of the DEO to reassure that she's _fine_ as they try to catch the Snow Queen. (Alex tells Kara it's a silly name, but it's what Cat Grant chose and everyone seems to be going with it.)

When they finally do see each other, it's in the bar. Alex is leaning forward to line up a perfect shot against Winn when Nok, who's been restless all evening and has been flying low loops around the outside of the bar since they got here, is suddenly gliding inside as the bouncer opens the door. Alex looks up from the shot to find dark, bright eyes looking at her warmly. She misses the shot. Winn starts to hoot in victory—Alex doesn't hear him.

 

* * *

 

Maggie joins them after grabbing a drink, then stays long after Winn makes an excuse to leave. She's not very good at pool in a precise kind of way that makes Alex suspect she's deliberately doing badly to—what? Stroke her ego? Make her laugh?

"You're holding your cue all wrong," she finally offers after another shot goes wildly astray. Maggie is three drinks in, her smile wicked, eyebrows raised.

"So show me how to do it."

Alex breathes in sharply, then manages what she thinks is a smile in response before stepping close and half leaning over Maggie, her arms resting alongside the smaller woman's. "Like this," she says, softer than intended, adjusting one of Maggie's hands. Nok makes a noise that sounds awfully like a snort-laugh for a bird, and hops to Maggie's other elbow, lifting it with his head. Stars dance across Alex's vision; she leans in closer.

 

* * *

 

She makes the shot that time, Alex pressed into her side and Nok still under her arm.

Alex wonders if the electric, dizzying feeling is just _her_ , some kind of strange reaction to this woman and her daemon. She's never touched someone else's daemon before outside of her immediate family, because it just isn't a thing you _do_ with friends or colleagues. It's intimate. And yet, here she is in a bar, leaning against one of her very few friends, her own daemon now settling into the curve of Maggie's shoulder again, Kogi winding circles around both of their ankles. Maggie is her _friend_ , no matter how un-platonic the images racing through her mind right now are.

Maggie shifts a little away from her, standing up and grinning at Alex. "Thanks for the help."

"Yeah. Always. No problem." Alex stands, too, and she's still so close to Maggie and every inch of her skin is tingling. She shifts a little, angling her hips toward Maggie's, not sure what she's doing but very sure she needs to be doing it. At their feet, leaning against both of their knees, Kogi begins, absurdly, to purr. "I don't think I knew...I mean, I guess he's a daemon but—I didn't know wild cats could—"

Maggie's hands are on her face, and Maggie's lips are pressing against hers and Alex can't remember what joke she was going to make, closing her eyes and opening her mouth slightly as Maggie's tongue flicks across her lips.


End file.
